"Hey," the figure said. He bent to look at the fatigued boy lying helpless on the ground. Seeing that Tobi was flat out, he took Tobi's hand and dragged him along. The figure was shitless and was only in pants. He had scars on his chest. A part of his forehead was stitched. Half of his hair was dyed blue, and the other half was black. He kept dragging on the floor till he reached a hut.
Bones and dead bodies lay around the hut. In the front yard, skulls were carefully arranged and hung in places. It seemed as if the owner of the hut had a hobby of keeping. The figure laid Tobi on the floor. He went inside the hut for a moment and came out with a bucket of water alongside a cutlass. The cutlass had been sharpened. The figure sprinkled Tobi's body with water. He took the cutlass, raised it and aimed at Tobi's neck.
The cutlass hit the ground with Tobi's body no longer in its position. The figure was surprised at where the body could have disappeared to. He was sure a second ago that it was there. The figure looked back and forth with no sign of Tobi's body. He searched around the hut, but Tobi was nowhere to be found. He became angry and scowled. His sport had been snatched.
"Phew, that was close. Suppose I had been any second late. He would have been butchered.," a girl said. The girl was about 155cm tall, brown in complexion and had fairly sized boobs. She had a medium size body. Her hair was black and short. She had blue eyes that gleamed in the dark. She was in her teen years and roughly the same age as Tobi. She wore a quiver on her back that contained just ten arrows and a bow in her hand. She was an archer.
"He must have been badly hurt to have been fatigued. I must find shelter before that thing finds us.," the girl said as she walked away opposite the direction of the hut.
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Chioma was wondering about the jungle when she saw a hut about 30 metres away. She took a step to go towards the hut but stopped. She saw a figure dragging a boy around her age towards the hut. The boy showed no reaction as he was dragged. The figure dropped the boy and went inside the hut. Chioma moved nearer to the hut. She was now about 15 metres away from the hut. The boy was still lying there. The figure came out with a keg of water and a cutlass. The water on the keg was poured on the body, and the figure took the cutlass aiming for the body. The boy was about to be butchered.
Seeing the figure lift the cutlass, Chioma took her arching stance. She coated the arrow with lightning, and as the cutlass was just a centimetre away from the body, she shot the arrow. "Lightning Strike!". She dropped her bow. With the lightning-coated arrow less than a centimetre away from the cutlass and directly above the body, she switched places with the arrow. She immediately touched the body and teleported to the position of the arrow. The arrow served as an anchor point for her switch and teleport.
She immediately dragged the boy's body away from the figure's line of sight before she lifted him and carried him on his back. She coated her legs with lightning and sped in the opposite direction till she saw an abandoned shelter near a waterside in the jungle.
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"Hey.," the girl said as she stood behind his head. Tobi could not capture the face of the figure. His vision was still blurry. "Hey, wake up.," the girl repeated. Tobi closed and opened his eyes before he sprung off the arranged woods he had been sleeping on.
"Where am I? What happens to me? How did I get here," Tobi paused. "Who are you?" he asked when he saw a girl standing behind him.
"I am Chioma. Chioma Raiki. I saved you from a skull-loving butcher. You were this close to being decapitated." She said as she handed over Tobi's shirts back to him. She had helped treat his bruises and massaged his joint while he was still asleep. "You were asleep for a very long time. I wondered when you would be awake. Well, I'm glad you are awake now."
Chioma had set up a small bonfire to keep the room warm. She sat opposite the bonfire facing Tobi. She asked, "Say, how did you become so fatigued you didn't react to be dragged over that long a distance?
"I had just finished fighting an enemy by expending the whole of my energy. If I had not, I would have died in the fight." Tobi answered. "What about you?"
"Me? I have not seen anybody since I transmigrated here. The figure and you were the first people I encountered."
"What colour of scroll do you have?" she paused to ask. "White," Tobi answered. Chioma dipped her hand into her dress and brought out a black scroll. "Mine is black." The two looked at each other for a while. Each remembered the instruction to return with an alternating scroll.
They both looked at each thinking of what to do next, until Tobi broke the silence. "What if the instruction was a trick?" Tobi asked with his hand placed on his jaw.
"A trick? Why would the instruction be a trick? A mission is not successful unless the instructions are obeyed." Chioma replied.
"Well, you may be right, but my father told me that the hallmark rule of warriors is never to attack or harm his fellow warriors unless instructed. To obtain and return with an alternate scroll, we have to attack each other, but the instructor also said we should remember the code of conduct." Tobi responded.
"That is true, but how then do we return with alternating scrolls? It's impossible." Chioma glared.
"Thinking about it, it's not," Tobi said. "How?" Chioma asked with her jaw resting on her palm.
"We return with somebody with an opposite colour of the scroll we have. The mission is not to obtain scrolls. It is to survive and return with a partner." Tobi declared.
Chioma looked at Tobi for a while, thinking about what he had said. She decided to trust him, and she agreed with him.
After a while, they both left the abandoned building to look for a better place. They took a path that led them to the end of the jungle. It was the first time they saw the outside of the jungle. The outside was filled with green grass with colourful petals. The beauty of the scenery was revealed by the hill landscape. In contrast to the jungle, this greenland was well-lit by the sun. The sweet smell of the greenland soothed the already refreshing and warm environment.
The two of them stayed at this place for a while before setting off to find shelter in the greenland. They followed a path that seemed to not end. They had been walking for over more than an hour, but there was no shelter, nor was there an end to the path.
They turned to return where they had left in the greenland. Suddenly, a strong, cold wind blew, and they both found themselves in an arctic. The greenland was gone. They were now in the middle of the Arctic, where the wind blowing was very strong and harsh. The ground was filled with snow. The snow reached the level of their ankles as they struggled to walk. They stayed close to each other, trying to warm up each other, but that would not last. The weather condition was becoming more unbearable for them. They were shivering and freezing.
Tobi managed to unsheath his sword and closed his eyes. He used both arms to lift the sword and proceeded to forcefully stick the sword into the snowy ground. "Dragon's lair!" he shouted. A barrier of fire encircled them. It neutralized the effect the cold had had on them. Tobi kept both his hands on the tilt of the sword. The barrier warmed up their body, and they stopped freezing. The lair could adjust to the temperature of the body inside it, which disallowed the body from being heated out.
The weather condition outside the barrier was getting worse by the minute. Tobi was already getting tired as the barrier was putting a strain on him. He was sweating and getting pale. The weather showed no mercy.
Just as Tobi was about to pass out, they were back at the headquarters. They had been transmigrated back to their world and some other students. A head count was done. The numbers that returned were lesser than the numbers that left. Out of the 547 kids that were transmigrated, only 238 were returned. Some had failed.
"It seems you were right. Ehm, ehm-"
"Tobi. Tobi Shirin is my name, and thanks for the save." Tobi appreciated Chioma.
"It was nothing," Chioma replied, smiling.
The kids returned full of energy as if nothing had happened in the other world. Tobi, who was on the verge of passing out in the other world, was full of energy as he was before he was transmigrated. The effect the forgotten world had on them was negligible in the real world. They only had to survive in that world. They had used three days in the other world according to the real world time. Tobi took his time to search for Ini in the crowd, but he could not find him. He had failed.
"Welcome back. It is time for the second phase of this examination—the duel. You are going to fight an opponent selected at random from among you. This is the time to show your fighting skills and do well to impress the district commanders.," the voice declared. "Remember your numbers."
The Districts Commanders had each taken their seats and were ready to watch the duel. They were going to evaluate and select the prospect they found worthy.
The voice came down to the level of the kids through a spatial portal. He gestured for the kids to move backwards, creating a space for the duel. "Remember the number you were during the headcount.," the voice said.
"35 and 197, come forward."
It was Chioma and an arrogant-looking guy. Chioma was 197.
"Ready."
"Set."
"Start!"